Ask Penguin15 Okt 2025

Is Jane Austen's legacy more than just romantic love? With Andrew Hunter Murray and Gill Hornby

Why do we still love Jane Austen’s novels 250 years later? What makes her stories continue to inspire readers and creators today? And if Jane were alive now, which book would you recommend she read?

In this special episode, recorded at Jane Austen’s family home in Alton, host Rhianna Dhillon is joined by Miss Austen author and president of the Jane Austen Society, Gill Hornby, alongside author and creator of the West End show Austentatious Andrew Hunter Murray, to explore Austen’s legacy and provide some regency-inspired book recommendations.

Discover all the books mentioned in this episode here: Jane Austen Episode

Visit Jane Austen’s home: janeaustens.house

To put a question to future podcast guests, and for exclusive content and book giveaways, join our Broadcast channel on Instagram: @PenguinUKBooks

Gill Hornby is a writer and journalist. Her novels Miss Austen and Godmersham Park were Sunday Times bestsellers, and Miss Austen was adapted into a four-part BBC drama starring Keely Hawes as Cassandra Austen. She is also the President of the Jane Austen Society.

Andrew Hunter Murray is a writer, broadcaster and comedian. His first novel, The Last Day, was a Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller, and one of the top 10 fiction debuts of 2020; his second, The Sanctuary, was a Waterstones Thriller of the Month; and his third, A Beginner’s Guide to Breaking and Entering, was shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic literature. in 2011, Murray was a founding member of the West End comedy show Austentatious.

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